After All
by Infamousplot
Summary: "What's a family?" "Scuse me?" "You mentioned it before. What is it?" "Hold up- You... Don't have a family?" Held captive in Shinra, Roxas never imagined a conversation with Axel look-alike Reno would be so productive. Reno and Roxas, onsehot, no slash.


**This is a rather random oneshot I came up with the other day after reading some quote from Lilo and Stitch, about Stitch's family (such an adorable movie). The setting for this is based off a Crossover idea I had awhile ago that I realized I'd never actually write, so I decided to just use the universe idea for this oneshot. **

**I have only written for Reno once, and I've only seen him in Advent Children, so he may be OOC. I basically tried to make him like Axel, only meaner. You know, when there's not an adorably naive Roxas to melt him ;3 Oh yeah, and his gratuitous 'yo's' were very awkward to write, so I hope they aren't nearly as awkward to read. Anything confusing will be explained at the end. The point of this was more the interactions between Roxas and Reno, and Roxas's thoughts on family. And thank you Fear the Silly people for reading over this for me :3**

**And if anyone has a better name for this story, by all means, tell me ._.  
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**Disclaimer(s): I do not own anything but the Crossover idea. Reno, Roxas, and all other characters/places mentioned belong to their respective owners.**

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><p>Roxas slung his keyblade through the last target, covering his face as it shattered. His breathing was ragged and his clothes were plastered to his skin with sweat. Letting the keyblade dematerialize, he hunched over, hands on his knees for support as he panted. He hadn't had a workout this vigorous since he'd had to fight that stupid Infernal Engine. Remembering the giant Heartless made him shudder.<p>

There was a sudden applause from behind him, and when he looked back, his non-existent heart sank. A familiar red-head was watching him cooly through the glass.

"Nice going, yo." Reno smirked. "I think you've just beat your own record." Roxas did his best to ignore him as he slumped against the wall, trying to get his breathing to return to normal. Roxas wasn't a big fan of being held captive or being separated from his friends -especially when he had no idea what was happening to said friends, or when his captor happened to look so much like one of said friends.

About two weeks ago (he was starting to lose track of the days), Axel, Xion and him had been sent on one of their rare threesome missions to a world called Midgar. While he and Xion had been assigned their usual Heart Collection Duty, Axel seemed to have been given a different job. One that did not involve key-toting children following him around and distracting him. When Axel had gone of on whatever his Hush Hush Top Secret Mission was, he and Xion had ended up crashing in some field after their Heartless slaying while they waited for him to get back. Midgar didn't seem to have many Heartless, but it sure was peaceful when you got far enough from the city...

Then _they_ had shown up. Some pony-tailed Axel look alike and his big, scary bald friend. Reno and Rude. The two came down in a helicopter -somehow managing to avoid waking up the sleeping key wielders- and next thing Roxas knew, Xion was being dragged toward the chopper, and the big guy was coming after him!

He'd put up a fight, of course, but these guys had the element of surprise on their side. Plus, a half-asleep key bearer really isn't as threatening as a fully awakened, adrenaline pumping one. There was also the size issue. The bald guy -Rude, who was at least a head and a half taller than him, and constructed from muscle twice his own mass -hit him in the face, just like Lexaeus had when he was teaching him back in his second week, only _harder._ By the time he was tossed in the plane, he was already on his way to dream land.

Then he'd woken up here. Some place called Shinra, in some strange little room with no windows that was always locked, and only a little slot under the door where trays of food could be slid under, twice a day.

A bottle of water rolled under the door, startling the Nobody, who had been lost in his own thoughts. Looking up cautiously, it appeared that Reno had not stirred. Gingerly, he picked up the bottle and unscrewed the cap, taking a swig. The cool liquid came as an amazing relief to his throat, and he took a few more chugs before putting it down. Might as well save some for later, right?

Sitting down, Roxas began twiddling with a remnant of the targets he'd demolished. Outside the door, he could hear Reno rummaging about, ruffling though papers. Probably recording his time and all that other junk. Usually Rude and him would come down to supervise him around this time, but today Rude was absent. Their job seemed to consist of watching him, running their stupid tests that reminded him a lot of Saix's training missions with all the enemies in the jars, and writing down information on a clipboard. He wasn't sure what they were writing, but it was probably about him.

He really didn't know _why_ he was here. No matter how many times he asked, Reno refused to give him a straight answer, and Rude -the more reasonable of the two -flat out wouldn't respond. He'd slammed on the door with his keyblade (to no avail), tried overpowering his "guardians" when they came to run tests, and blasted the wall with every spell he knew until he'd run out of MP, but so far nothing had worked. His cloak had been confiscated during the first day, while he'd been unconscious. Without it, traveling through the Dark Portals was suicide. He'd barely managed to make it over to Xion's room without passing out, and he woken up with a bunch of tubes and wires connected to him, pumping potions and oxygen into him. If that's how bad it was traveling a few yards, he seriously doubted he could hop across who knew how many worlds all the way back to the Castle That Never Was without disintegrating into darkness. Without his cloak, he really was stuck here. Obviously, whoever was running this Shinra place (he'd heard Reno talking to someone he called "Dot Face" over the intercom a few times) had done their research.

They'd taken his cloak, they'd separated him from Xion (much to his dismay), and whenever he wasn't demonstrating the powers of his keyblade or being hooked up to some machine and probed, Reno and Rude would drill him with constant questions about Kingdom Hearts and the Organization. He didn't tell them much, of course -Vexen and the others had drilled the "Don't Talk To Strangers" rule into him pretty well, and and it helped that he didn't really _want_ to tell these guys about the Org. He may have let a few things slip by mistake, but so far, he'd managed to stay strong. Luckily for him, Rude -as scary as he was -didn't seem to approve of resorting to violent measures when it came to children. For once, Roxas hadn't insisted that he "wasn't a kid."

"So, you ready to tell us a bit more about this whole Kingdom Hearts thing yo?" Reno asked suddenly. Roxas stood up, glaring out the glass panel in the door. Outside was another room, just like his but smaller, and still lacking windows. It was where Reno and Rude stood to observe him, unless his tests involved physical contact. There was some sort of intercom connecting the two rooms, so even through the glass (which he'd found impossible to shatter, even with magic), he could still hear his guards.

"Where's Rude?" Roxas asked, ignoring the red-head's question. While he didn't really care for either of his captors, he felt a lot more comfortable around Rude. Sure, he was big and scary, but he'd never threatened to beat an answer out of him. There was also the fact that Reno reminded him of Axel.

You'd think that would be a good thing, but Reno could be nasty. That, and thinking of Axel made Roxas's gut clench up a little bit. He'd been sure that, if he couldn't get out, then Axel would have come to help him and Xion by now. So far though, there had been no sign of the pyro...

"Rude's busy." Reno replied dryly, shifting weight from one leg to the other. "Now, care to spare some more info yo?" Roxas ignored him again, turning away from the window. There was an audible sigh, and he knew Reno was shaking his head with impatience. "Come on kid, don't make this more difficult than it needs to be. We just want to know a few things about this Organization of yours. Like, for instance... Who's in charge?" His voice bordered on hopeful, but Roxas refused to answer. He didn't bother asking why they cared so much. So far, it had gotten him nowhere. They seemed to expect him to give them all the answers, yet they didn't bother telling him more than their names -and even then, he'd only picked those up from context.

"If you tell me what I want to know, I might let you go see your little girlfriend." Something in Roxas twitched, and he whirled to face the redhead, eyes narrowed. "Elena says she's getting pretty lonely yo." His voice was sly, and his smirk reminding him disturbingly of Axel. He didn't like imagining Axel with expressions like that. Axel wasn't scary. He didn't knock kids out and lock them up against their will, of that much he was sure.

"Where is she?" He growled, hands against the glass. He liked to imagine he sounded menacing, but his confidence wavered when Reno laughed. It wasn't a nice laugh like the ones Axel, Xion and him shared the Clock Tower though. It sounded mean, spiteful. He _really_ didn't like Reno.

"Don't you worry about her, we're taking _good_ care of her." Reno grinned. Roxas felt a shudder run down his spine at these words. He thought of Xion, alone in her cell, going through the same tests that he had to go through, and it made his hackles rise.

So far, the tests Reno and Rude had run on him had been comparable to training run throughs. Smashing targets, showing off his spells, and killing strange little creatures that looked sort of like Heartless, but carried no hearts. A few times though, he'd been stuck inside some strange pod that occasionally _zapped _him. If he had to guess, he'd say Xion was probably in the same boat as he was. If they were hurting her though... His hands clenched, and subconsciously, the keyblade burst to his hold.

"Now, back to business... Who's the leader of your Organization?" Reno's voice went from sly to serious, and Roxas forced the keyblade down, ignoring him once more. Reno waited patiently for his answer -for all of five second -before asking another. "What is the purpose of Kingdom Hearts?"

"How does the Keyblade collect 'hearts'?" Roxas replied in a whiny mimic on Reno's tone. They asked him the same questions every day. They were probably written down on cue cards and taped to the wall or something. They even _sounded_ rehearsed!

Reno groaned, running his hands through his hair in exasperation.

"It's like talking to a five year old..." He seethed, forgetting that the intercom was still on. "Look, kid, why the hell are you making this so difficult? All we want is for you to answer the damn questions, yo!" His blue eyes flashed angrily, his tone rising quickly to infuriated. Roxas crossed his arms and glared.

"The maybe you shouldn't have kidnapped me and locked me up in here." He growled. Reno uttered some words Axel had told him and Xion never to use, then kicked the wall viciously a few times, probably wishing it was Roxas. Taking a deep breath, he spoke as calmly as he could to the Nobody through gritted teeth.

"Look, kid-"

"My name is Roxas." Roxas snapped. It was annoying enough when Axel called him kid, but he _liked_ Axel, and he'd made it pretty clear that he did _not_ like Reno.

"Fine, fine. _Roxas._ If you just answer our questions, we can finish up these stupid tests, and then you're outta here." Reno clapped his hands together, one shooting outward. "Just like that yo. Back home with your family like nothing ever happened. Doesn't that sound nice?" He was grinning tightly, like he was trying to convince himself as much as he was Roxas. Roxas wasn't buying it though.

Turning away, he sat down, making himself invisible to the redhead. Reno grumbled a few angry words, then mumbled something about wishing Rude was there to help. _You and me both, _Roxas added mentally. When Rude was around, Reno usually ended up getting distracted. Plus, Rude was a lot more patient than Reno. Despite having been the one who knocked him out and dragged him here, he seemed to be rather understanding toward Roxas's situation. It was like he knew why he was so upset, and understood that he didn't feel comfortable talking to people who were keeping him locked up like some lab rat. Sometimes, Roxas went as far as thinking that maybe, just maybe, Rude felt bad for him, and would let him leave if he was allowed to.

"Damn kid..." Reno muttered. Roxas stuck out his tongue, then remembered he was sitting down, so Reno couldn't see him anyway. Sighing, he hugged his legs to his chest and closed his eyes, trying to imagine what was going on back at the Organization. Xemnas was probably rather irked that _both_ Key Wielders had gone missing... And Saix was probably pissed Axel had let them get away.

Where was Axel? What was taking him so long? He liked to talk like he had more important things to do than "look after two munchkins all day", but Roxas was pretty sure he'd come to save them whether or not Saix or the Superior authorized it. He liked to imagine that Axel was trying to come get them right now, but was just having trouble getting in.

Outside, he heard Reno shuffling about, flipping through the clipboard and murmuring something too quietly for him to pick up on. Slowly, Roxas got to his feet and peeked out the window. Reno didn't seem to notice. His nose was buried in the papers. He wished he could see them. He wasn't really that interested in what they were writing about him, to tell the truth, but hey, if it would pass the time, he was all for it. If he'd thought Vacations Days at the Org were boring, sitting here ignoring questions all day was absolute torture.

Something Reno had said bobbed back up in his mind, and a frown crossed his face. It was one of those words he'd heard more than once, but had never thought to ask Axel about. Right now, he had nothing better to do, and Reno happened to be the next best thing.

"What's a family?" He rapped on the glass, nabbing Reno's attention away from the clipboard. The Axel Look Alike looked up, confusion darting through his gaze.

"Scuse me?"

"What's a family?" Roxas asked again, a bit more sure of himself this time."You said something about it before... That I'd be back home with my family. What is it?"

Reno blinked, seemingly unsure how to respond. Once again, Roxas was taken back to the Clock Tower, where that burning sensation crawled into his face after he'd asked a stupid question. _At least Reno's not laughing._

"You don't have a family?" Reno frowned, his voice entering a new tone that Roxas hadn't heard before. It sounded like a mixture of curiosity and... Was that sadness? Shrugging, Roxas focused his attention on the layer of dust on the door's window.

"Dunno. I might have one. I just don't know what one is." Roxas wished he'd kept his mouth shut. He'd always hated not knowing things. Not having a memory really sucked, but having to ask about things that were apparently known to everyone else in the entire freaking universe? That sucked _big time._ It was awkward enough going to ask Axel these questions that may or may not be the stupidest questions ever asked by a fourteen-year-old boy (or the most awkward), but putting himself out on a limb with _Reno?_ Man, he should have just stuck with the silent treatment...

"Well... Family is the people you're forced to live with- whether ya like it or not." He snorted, in a sarcastic tone that reminded him strangely of Axel. Roxas could tell from the look on his face that he was expecting Roxas to join in, but he wasn't sure what was so funny about what he'd said. When he didn't so much as chuckle, Reno sighed, then cleared his throat. "Well, family... Family is like... Huh." Reno scratched his head, looking pensive. "Y'know, I've never really thought about it. It's sort of hard to explain." He shrugged. Roxas frowned.

"Well, could you try?" He asked, trying not to sound too hopeful. Reno's frown deepened, but it wasn't an irritated frown like he usually had. It looked more thoughtful.

"Your family is the people who've always got your back. They're always there for you, y'know? Like, if you're in trouble... Well, they might chew you out for it, but when the going gets tough, you know they're gonna be there to help you out." Reno leaned against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. He was wearing a small smile. It wasn't like the other smiles he'd had- this one seemed warm, rather than mean. It made Roxas smile a little bit too.

"So... Family's like another word for friends?" He asked hesitantly. Reno snorted, his smile widening into a grin that wasn't exactly pleasant, but wasn't cruel either.

"Depends who ya ask, yo." He pushed himself up from the wall and began pacing a bit, spinning his rod around absent mindedly. "Back when I was your age, I couldn't stand my parents, let alone my siblings." His voice sounded sort of... Bitter, now. The look in his eyes was ort of sad though, like he was remembering something he didn't really want to be thinking of. Roxas wasn't quite sure what a Siblings was, and Axel hadn't told him much about parents, but Reno's expression made him hesitant to push for more answers.

He still wasn't sure what family was though. That was another way that Reno was like Axel- he wasn't very direct with his answers. He just sort of beat around the bush, dropping little bits of what you wanted to hear but never tossing you the whole thing. Though he did tend to talk about himself more than Axel did.

"Can you be friends with your family?" He wondered aloud. Reno looked up, apparently snapping out of thought.

"Eh? Well, sort of. I fought a lot with my sis and my cousins back in the day, but we had our moments." That small, warm smile started to appear on his face again, and Roxas leaned against the chair, content just to listen. He didn't know what a Sis was, or a cousins, but he decided that he'd rather listen to Reno ramble than deal with him being sarcastic or mean. He liked this calmer, nicer side of him. It reminded him of Axel when they were up on the Clock Tower. Man, he missed him...

_Wait. I'm not supposed to miss people. I don't have a heart._ Roxas frowned, remembering what the Superior and Axel had told him countless times. Well, if he could miss someone, he supposed it would have felt something like this -a sort of achiness in his chest when you thought of them.

"I got along a lot better with my little bro than I did my sister. He used to follow me around a lot. Try and get me to spar with him and stuff. I used to get us into so much trouble, you wouldn't believe it yo." Reno chuckled, shaking his head wryly. It looked more like he was talking to himself than trying to answer Roxas's question, it seemed. "So, yeah. I guess your family can be your friends." He smiled again, looking at Roxas. "Really, I think the only reason we fought so much was because we were just sick of seeing each other all the time. Know what I mean?" Roxas nodded slowly, though he wasn't really sure. He hung out with Axel and Xion every day, and he never got sick of talking with them. He couldn't remember ever fighting with them about anything, either. Well, there had been that one time when Axel and him had argued over whose turn it was to buy the icecream, but he hadn't really been _angry. _Actually, he'd been trying not to laugh. Xion had ended up buying the icecream just to get them to shut up. Apparently he made up lame comebacks or something.

Then again, Saix always rubbed him the wrong way, and Demyx had always struck him as kind of annoying... Vexen creeped him out a little bit, too. And now that he thought of it, he was still pretty wary of Lexaeus ever since the "Silent Hero" had smacked him in the face. Sure, he didn't see them all the time, but he supposed that counted. _'Family is the people you're forced to live with- whether ya like it or not.'_

"Yeah." He nodded more fervently. Reno smirked. Roxas wasn't sure if he should ask about siblings and cousins, or if he should just drop the subject. He was still a little confused on the whole family subject though. Like, what made a family any different than a friend?

"Glad we've got that covered," Reno stretched his fingers in that weird backwards way he'd seen Axel do a few times. "Now, if we're all done on that subject-" As he reached for the clipboard, Roxas's mind scrambled for a new question. Screw looking stupid, anything to keep from dodging more annoying tests!

"Wait, what's a siblings?" He practically shouted. Reno blinked, slowly setting the clipboard against his knees.

"You serious yo? What, did you grow up under a rock or something?" Frowning, he clicked on his pen, the tip popping out. "How long have you been running with this Org gang anyway?" Instinctively, Roxas replied with the exact number of days, only remembering his pact not to speak after the number ha dpopped out. Clamping a hand over his mouth, he felt his face burn a bit. Of the limited things he knew, one of them was that normal people didn't memorize each day of their lives like he did. Then again, normal people had a lot more days in their lives than he did. Reno was staring at him with a perplexed look on his face, but he jotted down the number anyway. At least, Roxas assumed that's what he was writing. What else could he have gotten from that?

"Right... And you're how old?" He asked. Roxas almost answered with the same number as before, but quickly caught himself and zipped his lips.

"You didn't tell me what a siblings was. Or a cousins." Changing the subject was always the best solution to questions you didn't want to answer. One of the many things he'd picked up from Axel. Reno raised an eyebrow and sighed a little.

"Fine. Let's make a deal, yo." Reno placed the clipboard down, pacing over to the door. "If I answer your little questions, will you tell me what I wanna know?" His face was close to the window, and that sly smile was plastered on his face again. Roxas frowned, a bit uncertain. He knew he couldn't give away any secrets about the Organization, lest he be reduced to a Dusk, but he couldn't help his curiosity. Finally, he settled on an answer that he hoped would satisfy them both.

"Maybe." Reno's eyes narrowed slightly, and Roxas held his breath. It had to be worth a shot, right? Plus, it wasn't like Reno had many other options. Maybe he'd think telling him this stuff would be a more productive way to get answers than zapping it out of him with his cattle prod thingy?

With a sigh, Reno turned around, stalking back toward his wall.

"Fine, have it your way yo." Looking up at the ceiling, he seemed to be wracking his brain. "Sibling are brother and sisters. People who come from the same parents. Related by blood and all that jazz," Reno wiggled his hands around a bit when he said jazz. Another quirk similar to Axel. Speaking of the devil, he'd also used the word 'bro' a lot, especially when referring to the blond key bearer.

_Related by blood?_ Roxas frowned. Blood was something humans had, instead of Darkness. How could they be related by it, though? He still wasn't sure what parents were, now that he thought of it...

Reno didn't seem to notice the lost look on the poor Nobody's face, and he barrelled on, his hands gesticulating, animating the conversation just like Axel would.

"Course, I guess a brother or sister wouldn't have to be related by blood." Reno noted, peeking Roxas's interest. He was pretty sure he didn't have anyone related to him by blood (since he didn't have any), or by Darkness for that matter, but if that wasn't a rule set in stone, maybe he could have some family he didn't know about. "Some families aren't really related at all. They just say they're a family." Reno shrugged, and Roxas continued to wonder.

"And that makes them a family? Just saying that they are?" He mused. Family was starting to sound a whole lot simpler than he'd thought it was. Reno smiled slightly, shrugging as he crossed one leg over the other.

"More or less... Family isn't always people who are related yo. Sometimes it's just a bunch of people who look out for each other." His smile melted a little bit, looking more blissful. That was the word Roxas thought would fit the description, anyway. "I remember my cousin -that's a kid from your parent's siblings' family-" Roxas's head spun a little bit at this, and he took a moment to try and piece it together before tuning back in to Reno's story -"Lea, he always used to pick up stray puppies yo." Reno laughed.

"Puppies?" The Nobody struggled to understand how they'd gotten from parents siblings children to animals. Reno paused, then chuckled.

"I mean outcasts yo. Y'know, kids that just don't fit in?" He explained, a sort of knowing look in his eye. Roxas felt himself nodding. Yeah. He knew what that was like. Trying to act normal but just not understanding what it was that made you seem so _different._ "Anyway, like I said yo, Lea used to find the weirdest kids. There was this one little bookworm he used to hang out with, and this real spazzy kid. Neither one of them really went with the crowd yo, but Lea didn't care. He was always looking out for them, like they were family."

Reno prattled on about his cousin Lea for awhile, and Roxas listened contentedly. There was something about the air around Reno that had altered since he'd first entered, a shift in the atmosphere. He felt like Reno was more real right now, more than just some face he'd learned to dislike. When he talked about this kid, Lea, a boy (despite the feminine name) that sounded more and more like Axel with each passing moment, Roxas swore he could feel some sort of warmth seeping through the door and into the room. Reno didn't seem like some bully who was keeping him here against his will. For this brief moment, he seemed like a person, someone with feelings that really did care about things beyond Shinra. Even though Roxas couldn't relate to the whole feelings or cousin thing, he couldn't help but smile.

"The sad thing is yo, we fought. A _lot._" Reno laughed at this part, but it was a bitter laugh. "He followed me around a lot, and sometimes I got sick of looking after him. He was only two years younger than me, but whenever we visited them my mom and aunt expected to to take care of'im. I was around your age, so I wasn't too big on the idea of baby sitting, yo." He chuckled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck almost reflexively. Just like Axel. "We had some good times though... We used to climb trees and go on stupid little adventures, dumb stuff like that." The look on Reno's face wasn't something Roxas really knew how to describe. He still had a smile, and his eyes had turned soft, but somehow he looked kind of... Sad.

"Lea sounds a lot like Axel." Roxas murmured. he was leaning against the window, forehead pressed up against the glass, leaving a greasy smudge from his sweat. Reno looked up slightly and his smile tightened a bit.

Hearing about this wild child who picked fights with bullies and looked after misfits made him think of Axel, and how he'd looked after him and Xion. Roxas knew he wasn't necessarily the brightest bulb in the Organization, but he wasn't dense. Anyone could tell that to most of the Org members, he and Xion were nothing more than handles for the Keyblade. He might not have been able to place it into this many words, but he knew that in the eyes of people like Saix, the Superior and their other higher ups, he and Xion weren't much more than tools for building Kingdom Hearts.

Axel didn't think of them that way though. At first, he'd seemed like the others, just baby sitting him because he had to and tossing around commands like Roxas was a dog. Then he'd taken him up the the Clock Tower. He'd said that they were friends, and even explained to him what friends were. He'd helped Xion out when she couldn't use her Keyblade -even though Roxas was sure he hadn't really liked Xion much back then - and bought them icecream, stepped out on a limb to keep Saix off their back and help them with their missions... None of those things were orders. No one had told Axel he _had_ to take care of Xion and him, or that he had to go to Twilight Town every day and eat icecream with them. He'd just done it. Because to him, they weren't just Keyblade holders. They were his friends, his-

Roxas's train of thought halted, and that word popped up in his mind floating their patiently as he hesitated to use it.

Axel... He and Xion were his _family_.

That thought left a glowing sensation in his chest, and he smiled broadly. Yes. Yes, that had to be it. The three of them weren't just friends, or even best friends. They were a family.

Reno was looking at Roxas with strange, happy yet sad look still on his face.

"If that's the case yo, then I'm sure this Axel's a pretty great guy." Roxas nodded, then chuckled when he remembered threatening Reno by telling him that "Axel will kick your ass!" It must have been because he thought Lea was a great kid.

"Where's lea now?" He couldn't help but wonder. Asking one more question couldn't hurt though, right? After all, he hadn't exactly _promised_ to keep his half of the bargain -maybe didn't mean yes, after all.

Apparently, one more question _did_ hurt. Upon this question, Reno paused, and within an instant his expression dropped to that which looked like... Loss. Roxas frowned, suddenly not wanting an answer.

"He's gone." Reno murmured, and those two words said it all. Even Roxas could pick up from his tone that the sort of 'gone' he was talking about wasn't the simple 'left and didn't come back' kind. Something had happened to Lea. Something to make him gone. For some reason, this made his throat feel sort of tight, like someone was squeezing it. He felt the sudden urge to speak.

"I'm sorry." The redhead looked up, surprise flashing in his gaze. Roxas wasn't used to sympathizing with people -after all, he wasn't even supposed to be capable of sympathy -but he thought he knew hoe Reno must feel, and he felt like he needed to say something. It probably had something to do with the fact that Lea reminded him of Axel, he figured.

"One time, Axel went away on a mission, and everyone told me that he'd been annihilated." He swallowed, his throat feeling tighter just remembering it. When Axel had been 'gone', his brain had felt fuzzy and he hadn't been sure what to do. The only reason he hadn't slogged back to his room after each mission was because he'd been hoping to find Xion at the Clock Tower. "If something bad had really happened to him..." _I wouldn't know what to do._ He thought, but he couldn't bring himself to finish. Out of the top of his gaze, he saw Reno nod in understanding.

"Life's tough, eh?" The young man sighed loudly, slumping down a bit against the wall. "This Axel guy you keep talking about... Who is he, anyway?" He looked up expectantly, and Roxas hesitated. Going over details he had deemed too important to slip his lips, he tried to figure out whether or not it was safe to say something about Axel. He'd already made it clear that he expected Axel to show up. Telling Reno a little bit about him wouldn't be endangering the Organization, right? Decisive, he looked at Reno very seriously, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips. _They're my family._

Just as he opened his mouth to answer, the loudspeaker crackled, and both boys looked up at it expectantly.

"Reno, report to my office immediately." A voice he identified as 'Dot Face's' barked, sounding rather impatient. "That's an order." Reno looked up, clearly irritated.

"I'm coming!" He snapped back, muttering something unpleasant under his breath. "And for the last time yo, it's not _your_ office yo, it's Rufus's!" Dot Face yelled something Roxas didn't quite get, but Reno seemed to, and he waved his hand dismissively at the speaker, as though it could see him.

"Man, what a drag... Well, you got off the hook this time yo." He smirked again, snatching the clipboard and making a reach for the door. As his hand grabbed the knob, he suddenly stooped, then glanced back at the Nobody. "You know, you never answered any of my questions." He noted, though there didn't seem to be any accusation in his voice. "Who's Axel?" Roxas smiled, ready to answer this time.

"He's my brother."

Reno stared at him for a moment, expressionless. Then he cracked a smile.

"Whaddya know. Looks like you've got a family after all, yo." He chuckled, opening the door but not looking away from the Nobody.

"Yeah." Roxas nodded, unable to hide the smile on his face (though he managed to channel it into what he guessed looked like a smug little smirk). "I guess I do."

* * *

><p><em>"I learned something about family tonight. There not always the ones who love you the most. Sometimes it's the family that you make for yourself."<br>_

_ Betty Suarez, "Ugly Betty"  
><em>

* * *

><p><strong>Okay, here's the reason Roxas is imprisoned: Shinra was looking for a better energy source so that they wouldn't have to continue draining the Life Stream, and they noticed Heartless and other strange anomalies going on, so they started studying them. This lead them to the Organization and Kingdom Hearts, as well as the Keyblades. They thought they could use these Hearts and Kingdom Hearts as a new energy source, so they took Roxas and Xion to study. Axel's Hush Hush Top Secret missions in Midgar were to try and find out more about Shinra and how much they knew, the weird Heartless-like-creatures were created by Shinra because they don't really know what the Heartless are and they're trying to make artificial ones for Roxas to fight, to see how the Keyblade works. <strong>

**I hope people enjoy this story :3 Please review, even if it's just to say "I read this" ^_^  
><strong>


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